The entire Nebraska football team gets introduced before a Los Angeles Lakers game.

"We're booed," safety Dion Booker says.

They're introduced again at halftime.

"We're booed louder," Booker says.

And introduced again in the second half.

"That was the loudest boo of them all," he says. "I couldn't believe it. None of us could. That shouldn't happen in that environment. It was terrible. You don't think that made us mad?"

As you analyze this national championship game, Miami has the better players. It has a deeper roster. It has the best talent at the most important positions.

But there comes a point when the old Bo Schembechler line on how to handle people who praise you -- "Smack 'em in the mouth, because they're not helping you" -- should take hold and we're far past that point in this game's buildup.

"All everyone's saying is Miami is the best team ever, and we know that," Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch said. "We've got something to prove to the world."

Intangibles? Big edge, Nebraska.

If they matter.

And if I'm University of Miami coach Larry Coker, this looks more threatening than Crouch on the option. This mindset. This anti-Nebraska worldview. This wall-to-wall assuredness that Nebraska can't be any good since it lost its previous game, didn't make its conference final and, what's more, doesn't even deserve to be in this national-championship Rose Bowl.

"These aren't our favorite topics to keep talking about," Nebraska defensive coordinator Craig Bohl said, slapping on a smile, looking down a line of five Nebraska defenders who sat stone-faced before microphones.

Inside, however, he surely was thinking what every Nebraska coach has thought this past week: Keep asking away about that 62-36 loss to Colorado. Keep saying we can't stop Miami's offense. Keep wondering whether we belong in this game. Boo us. Rip us. Take a garden tool to our egos.

"What you have is a bunch of guys letting a lot of dumb questions slide, dealing with things as civilly as we can," linebacker Jamie Burrow said. "But there is a lot of pent-up frustration on this team. A whole lot of anger. And the way to handle that is to carry it onto the field."

Nebraska is 11-1. It outscored opponents 449-189. All its wins are by double digits. It didn't win any by a lucky bounce (Miami vs. Boston College) or a lucky drop (Miami vs. Virginia Tech). It had one afternoon where every flaw was exposed, especially on defense, where all 11 players had the patented off day.

"Make it 12," Bohl said. "I wasn't any good that day, either."

It's hard to see Nebraska winning this game. But it's hard to see how Penn State beat Miami's best-ever team in the '87 Fiesta Bowl.

If you're writing the script for how these upsets happen, you write Miami offensive tackle Bryan McKinnie saying this: "Their secondary looks like it has a little trouble tackling. Once we get through their front seven, I think we can get some big plays. And we'll get big plays. We have too many weapons."

That's what he said Tuesday. That's the kind of talk Nebraska players say they've heard all week.

"From guys who run into [Miami players] in clubs, from taxi drivers who drove them, from people who see them in the streets -- everyone tells us something they say," Booker said. "It's ridiculous. You win games on the field. You don't win by talking loud."

Bohl, for his part, says the loss to Colorado wasn't a bitter pill.

"It was medicine," he said. "We see that now."

When this matchup was announced, I wrote Nebraska had no chance in this game. A month later, it's time to amend that.